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Demystifying Scriabin
An innovative contribution to Scriabin studies, covering aspects of Scriabin's life, personality, beliefs, training, creative output, and interaction with contemporary Russian culture.
This book is an innovative contribution to Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) studies, covering aspects of Scriabin's life, personality, beliefs, training, creative output, as well as his interaction with contemporary Russian culture. It offers new and original research from leading and upcoming Russian music scholars. Key Scriabin topics such as mysticism, philosophy, music theory, contemporary aesthetics, and composition processes are covered. Musical coverage spans the composer's early, middle and late period. All main repertoire is being the piano miniatures and sonatas as well as the symphonies. In more detail, chapters Scriabin's part in early twentieth-century Russia's cultural climate; how Scriabin moved from early pastiche to a style much more original; the influence of music theory on Scriabin's idiosyncratic style; the changing contexts of Scriabin performances; new aspects of reception studies. Further chapters a critical understanding of how Scriabin's writings sit within the traditions of Mysticism as well as French and Russian Symbolism; a new investigation into his creative compositional process; miniaturism and its wider context; a new reading of the composer's mysticism and synaesthesia. Analytical chapters reach out of the score to offer an interpretative framework; accepting new approaches from disability studies; investigating the complex interaction of rhythm and metre and modal interactions, the latent diatonic 'tonal function' of Scriabin's late works, as well as self-regulating structures in the composer's music.
This book is an innovative contribution to Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) studies, covering aspects of Scriabin's life, personality, beliefs, training, creative output, as well as his interaction with contemporary Russian culture. It offers new and original research from leading and upcoming Russian music scholars. Key Scriabin topics such as mysticism, philosophy, music theory, contemporary aesthetics, and composition processes are covered. Musical coverage spans the composer's early, middle and late period. All main repertoire is being the piano miniatures and sonatas as well as the symphonies. In more detail, chapters Scriabin's part in early twentieth-century Russia's cultural climate; how Scriabin moved from early pastiche to a style much more original; the influence of music theory on Scriabin's idiosyncratic style; the changing contexts of Scriabin performances; new aspects of reception studies. Further chapters a critical understanding of how Scriabin's writings sit within the traditions of Mysticism as well as French and Russian Symbolism; a new investigation into his creative compositional process; miniaturism and its wider context; a new reading of the composer's mysticism and synaesthesia. Analytical chapters reach out of the score to offer an interpretative framework; accepting new approaches from disability studies; investigating the complex interaction of rhythm and metre and modal interactions, the latent diatonic 'tonal function' of Scriabin's late works, as well as self-regulating structures in the composer's music.
358 pages, Hardcover
First published January 14, 2022
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 8, 2023
This book was a waste of money.
Not worth the £65 I spent for the hardback version.
It is very sparse. Most pages are half filled with footnotes.
The quality and readability of the individual essays varies wildly.
Some of them are interesting and well written.
Most of them are not.
Almost all of this book is incredibly dense academic writing. Clearly written by scholars who know their subject, but who only write for other scholars.
Do not buy this book if you are a fan of music in general, Scriabins music in particular or biography.
This book will be of use if you are a music scholar, of a particular type.
The writing here is the sort of academic maze of words which adds absolutely nothing to what it analyses.
If fact, as it relates to music, this type of writing actually removes joy from what it analyses.
I will continue to listen to Scriabin's work.
I will continue to enjoy it deeply.
This book has added very very little to my experience, either in insight about the man himself, his music or how he created it.
I am upset I purchased this.
Not worth the £65 I spent for the hardback version.
It is very sparse. Most pages are half filled with footnotes.
The quality and readability of the individual essays varies wildly.
Some of them are interesting and well written.
Most of them are not.
Almost all of this book is incredibly dense academic writing. Clearly written by scholars who know their subject, but who only write for other scholars.
Do not buy this book if you are a fan of music in general, Scriabins music in particular or biography.
This book will be of use if you are a music scholar, of a particular type.
The writing here is the sort of academic maze of words which adds absolutely nothing to what it analyses.
If fact, as it relates to music, this type of writing actually removes joy from what it analyses.
I will continue to listen to Scriabin's work.
I will continue to enjoy it deeply.
This book has added very very little to my experience, either in insight about the man himself, his music or how he created it.
I am upset I purchased this.
Displaying 1 of 1 review